According to a recent survey by the Hong Kong Intellectual Property Department, almost two-thirds of those asked say that they would not pay for content online.

The 2014 survey to gauge public awareness of IP protection in Hong Kong found that 60.6% would not pay to listen to songs, watch movies online or download content from authorized websites. Among the igures, more than 20% say the expensive fee is the reason why they choose pirated content.

Eugene Low, a partner at Hogan Lovells in Hong Kong, says the figure has gone down from previous years. “For instance, back in 2008, the percentage of respondents who said they probably or deinitely would not pay to listen to songs, watch movies online or download content was a high 78.6%.” He says the main reasons given for preferring not to pay for using online content was that they considered online purchases to be troublesome and too expensive.

“Throughout the years, however, with the increased availability and variety of legitimate online contents – and probably lower prices too – more members of the younger generation have become accustomed to pay for online content.”

Ada Leung, Hong Kong’s director of intellectual property says Hong Kong “must remain vigilant” of the challenges to IP protection brought about by the fast advancement of technology and the popularity of mobile devices.

“We will keep up our efforts to enhance public awareness of IP rights protection and respect for IP rights, especially among the younger generation, through various educational and promotional programmes and by stepping up promotion on different channels,” Leung says.

Low believes it is a global trend that more infringement activities are taking place online. It takes a multi-pronged approach to tackle the problem of online infringement, including modernizing the law to cope with the advancement of technology, continuing education of IP awareness and IP owners increasing accessibility and availability of their content online, thus making it attractive and user-friendly for consumers to resort to legitimate rather than infringing sources.

Low says publishers and authors also feel threatened by online infringement activities. The Hong Kong and International Publishers’ Alliance (HKIPA), for example, has recently acknowledged the threat in its comments to the Legislative Council on the Copyright (Amendment) Bill 2014. In relation to online infringement, the HKIPA has said that “publishers and other right holders are increasingly confronted with mass infringement sites and services, in which hundreds or thousands of individual works are simultaneously made available to the public in unauthorized copies.”

The HKIPA says the modernization of the copyright law in Hong Kong to meet the modern realities of a networked digital environment and the e-commerce marketplace is long overdue.

Low says Hong Kong people in general have good awareness about IP. “In the IPD 2014 Survey on Public Awareness of Intellectual Property, an overwhelming majority of the respondents (94.9%) considered that it was very or quite necessary to protect intellectual property rights in Hong Kong. “The challenge is how to adapt to the rapid technological developments and to educate people what is considered infringement and what is not.”